Salmon Recipe Mystery -- Solved

Honeybit · ‎07-17-2011

Even if nobody else cares, I'm delighted. Back on 10-02-2014, I had asked here if anybody knew the origin of a recipe that was an old family favorite. I had found that it didn't come from Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book as I had always believed. Periodically I've searched the Internet for clues, and recently learned on Recipe Swap that I could search cooks.com by ingredients as well as by recipe title. I got pages of hits, but kept browsing down through them and finally found one titled Salmonettes (Heloise Recipe).

So, I did another Google search and found this page:

http://texanaskitchen.com/2013/07/28/happy-birthday-granny/

which is a tribute to the blogger's grandmother and includes a picture of the original Heloise column of the salmon recipe which was a favorite in their family also. (BTW, her grandmother was movie-star gorgeous!)

Here's the version I posted -- the Heloise clipping is much more detailed and much more fun to read for its 1960's point of view.

SALMON PUFFS

1 15-ounce can pink salmon

1 whole egg

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup flour (or use cornmeal as a variation)

Pour the juice from the salmon into a measuring cup. Use a fork to break up the salmon in a mixing bowl. Mix egg in well. Stir in flour thoroughly.

Don't add any salt; pepper is okay.

Take 1/4 cup of the salmon juice and add the vinegar and baking powder to it. Beat with a fork. It should foam up to about 3/4 cup. After the foaming has worked, pour it into the salmon and mix with a fork.

Use two long-handled iced tea spoons to scoop out small balls of salmon and drop into a deep fryer half full of hot oil. They will turn themselves as they cook and are completely done in a few seconds: golden, lacy, and crunchy.

(I have a warped sense of fun, I guess, but I really get a kick out of solving old recipe mysteries.)